The minutes before a workshop begin are filled with anticipation. There are always some children who come early (sometimes very early), and some who come late, (sometimes very late), but the core group has assembled around the suggested time for a healthy drink and a snack. CBN children are often hungry when they arrive, and a hungry child cannot properly focus. A certain amount of advance commitment is needed from the participants as each child must produce a signed permission form that involves parents and carers in the process.
As they come, they filter towards reading books laid out around the theme of the workshop. This can include anything from borrowed coffee-table books to poetry and always non-fiction as well as fiction. Some of the books are easy readers and some more challenging. They establish the theme of the coming workshop.
We begin with a story (or sometimes stories) specially written around the theme. Children have copies of the stories which they can follow as the text is read aloud and sometimes explained in passing. They take these home as part of a reading pack that includes activities and reading games. (Some of the stories are also available on our website to be listened to at home on a cellphone.)
Activities support reading texts by promoting imagination and thinking – the key goals of all our workshops. In short workshops that are held regularly every week, there is not a lot of time, and the children are tired after school, but they still get a lot from the workshops. On Saturday morning or holiday workshops the theme can be expanded in many different directions. These always include writing (and some writing training), art, storytelling and play. There is, for example, a CBN Reading Board Game that involves referencing books and reading out the answers to questions. This causes great excitement and a lot of inadvertent reading. Our workshop and activities manager has created dozens of games that involve cards, worksheets and … reading.
When we can, we invite additional readers, storytellers, poets and musicians as well as visiting experts on subjects as varied as penguins, plants and planets. Once, the University of Cape Town choir came and introduced the participants to the joys of choral communicating. We have seen demonstrations of the making of stone tools and created ochre paint to make our own rock art. Finger puppets make their appearance and also shadow puppets. Origami is popular and so is tie-dying and landscape art. Design and fashion result in great autobiographical stories and pictures. Once we visited a big cat sanctuary. We have run projects where elders in a community are interviewed about their own personal stories and reflected on ‘the day I was born’. The workshop participants have made self-portraits using mirrors … The aim is always reading, but the approach also encompasses general knowledge, imagination and play.
School Calendar Year Workshop Figures 2024
Term 1 2024
| Venue | Amount of Workshops | Children Reached |
| Okkie Smuts Primary School | 7 | 56 |
| Stanford South | 7 | 55 |
| Enlighten Trust | 1 | 25 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 136 |
Term 2 2024
| Venue | Amount of Workshops | Children Reached |
| Okkie Smuts Primary School | 10 | 84 |
| Stanford South | 10 | 74 |
| TOTAL | 20 | 158 |
Term 3 2024
| Venue | Amount of Workshops | Children Reached |
| Okkie Smuts Primary School | 7 | 64 |
| Stanford South | 8 | 29 |
| Enlighten Trust | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 15 | 93 |
Term 4 2024
| Venue | Amount of Workshops | Children Reached |
| Okkie Smuts Primary School | 4 | 34 |
| Stanford South | 9 | 90 |
| Enlighten Trust | 1 | 24 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 148 |
Total
| GRAND TOTAL | Amount of Workshops | Children Reached |
| Okkie Smuts Primary School | 28 | 238 |
| Stanford South | 34 | 248 |
| Enlighten Trust | 2 | 49 |
| TOTAL | 64 | 535 |
